Tag Archives: death valley

Photographs: Death Valley, Photographs: Desert, Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Southern California

Desert Mountains, Before Sunrise

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Desert Mountains, Before Sunrise
A canyon twists down through rugged desert mountains in pre-sunrise light.

Desert Mountains, Before Sunrise. © Copyright 2022 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A canyon twists down through rugged desert mountains in pre-sunrise light.

One thing that has always appealed to me about the desert landscape — which for me often means the Death Valley landscape — is that the geology is laid bare almost everywhere. So many landscapes are to a great extent about what covers them — the forests, grasslands, lakes, meadows, rivers, and more. But here most of the vegetation is so sparse (or it matches the colors of rocks and soil so well) that we see straight to the underlying earth — the canyons, the colors of rock and soil, strata twisted and uplifted, runoff channels, landslides, fans, and more.

This canyon descends toward Death Valley from high in the Panamint Mountains, following a twisting path down from the heights as it links up tributary valleys and eventually forms a broad wash that spills out at the top of a gigantic gravel fan. I made this photograph before sunrise, when the soft, early light suffused the canyons and revealed subtle details that can be lost in harsher light later in the day.

G Dan Mitchell is a California photographer and visual opportunist. His book, “California’s Fall Color: A Photographer’s Guide to Autumn in the Sierra” is available from Heyday Books, Amazon, and directly from G Dan Mitchell.

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Photographs: Death Valley, Photographs: Desert, Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Southern California

Badlands Detail

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Badlands Detail
A small, deeply eroded gully cuts through badlands terrain, Death Valley National Park.

Badlands Detail. © Copyright 2022 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A small, deeply eroded gully cuts through badlands terrain, Death Valley National Park.

You may have noticed that few of my photographs from Death Valley feature the usual iconic subjects. Perhaps an explanation is in order. There’s nothing at all wrong with photographing those famous subjects — as someone once said, “There’s a reason they are icons!” I photograph them, too, when the conditions are special or unusual. In the right conditions you might even find me lined up at Zabriskie Point at dawn! (Though these days, if I photograph that subject, it is more likely to be in the middle of the day or perhaps at night. That’s a long story — too long for this short post.)

These days much of my photography in the park falls into a few basic categories. There are some photographs that I have had in mind for a long time that still haven’t quite come together the way I want, and I return to these subjects regularly and continue to work on them. I’m also very interested in pushing out the boundaries of my relationship to this landscape, and on every visit I got to places that I have not visited before. Another approach that has come to interest me more and more here is to excerpt small bits of the larger landscape and treat them as the subject. (I believe that sometimes a close look at a fragment of the landscape can tell us more about it than a photograph that tries to “include it all.”) This photograph falls into the latter category — this little ravine is high on a hill in a place where, I’d wager, most people probably don’t even notice it. But at the right moment in the right light it becomes something special.

G Dan Mitchell is a California photographer and visual opportunist. His book, “California’s Fall Color: A Photographer’s Guide to Autumn in the Sierra” is available from Heyday Books, Amazon, and directly from G Dan Mitchell.

Blog | About | Flickr | Facebook | Email

Links to Articles, Sales and Licensing, my Sierra Nevada Fall Color book, Contact Information.

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All media © Copyright G Dan Mitchell and others as indicated. Any use requires advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.

Photographs: Death Valley, Photographs: Desert, Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Southern California

Creosote and Blowing Sand

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Creosote and Blowing Sand
High winds blow streamers of sand across dunes and past a lone clump of creosote in evening light.

Creosote and Blowing Sand. © Copyright 2022 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

High winds blow streamers of sand across dunes and past a lone clump of creosote in evening light.

There are certain things we do not mention when in the field, things that we hope stay away and do not show up to interfere with photography. Since I’m not in the field at the moment — instead, sitting at my computer in my studio — I can go ahead and name one of them: wind. Some years back I was photographing canyons in Utah with some friends, and I was informed that I should never mention the name of this phenomenon while in the field, and if it was necessary to refer to it, the thing could only be called “W.”

“W” is often an issue in Death Valley and similar landscapes. It both creates challenges to photography (dust, camera stability, and more) and opportunities (flying dust can look spectacular!). We learn to deal with it. Sometimes this means heading off to a spot that is sheltered from the worst of it. It might mean photographing the effects of the wind (for example, a dust storm) from just outside its boundaries. Sometimes it means cautiously wading right into the maelstrom if the conditions appear to be spectacular enough, even at risk to equipment and health. Truth be told, the wind whipping up the flying sand in this photograph wasn’t that bad, especially since I could keep it mostly at my back.

G Dan Mitchell is a California photographer and visual opportunist. His book, “California’s Fall Color: A Photographer’s Guide to Autumn in the Sierra” is available from Heyday Books, Amazon, and directly from G Dan Mitchell.

Blog | About | Flickr | Facebook | Email

Links to Articles, Sales and Licensing, my Sierra Nevada Fall Color book, Contact Information.

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All media © Copyright G Dan Mitchell and others as indicated. Any use requires advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.

Photographs: Death Valley, Photographs: Desert, Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Southern California

First Light, Desert Mountains

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First Light, Desert Mountains
The first morning light on a ridge in desert mountains, Death Valley National Park.

First Light, Desert Mountains. © Copyright 2022 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

The first morning light on a ridge in desert mountains, Death Valley National Park.

One important factor to keep in mind when photographing in Death Valley National Park is the roughly north-south orientation of most of the valleys and mountain ranges. In a broad sense, this tends to give us two ways to photograph these subjects in the morning or evening — one in direct sun and the other in shadow and backlight. This is such a basic aspect of the park’s geography, that I often organize my daily photography around it. (There are some variations on this theme, for example in locations where some features face more towards the north or south, and interesting light often slants across them.)

This photograph takes in a small segment of the east face of the Panamint Mountains, the gigantic range separating Death Valley from the Panamint Valley to the west. This east-facing aspect of the range rises over 11,000′ from Badwater to the summit of Telescope Peak, and most of it has a remarkably rugged and barren appearance. Because it is so tall, the “sunrise” takes place over a longer time as the light works its way down from the highest peaks and ridges to the alluvial fans at their base and eventually to Death Valley itself.

G Dan Mitchell is a California photographer and visual opportunist. His book, “California’s Fall Color: A Photographer’s Guide to Autumn in the Sierra” is available from Heyday Books, Amazon, and directly from G Dan Mitchell.

Blog | About | Flickr | Facebook | Email

Links to Articles, Sales and Licensing, my Sierra Nevada Fall Color book, Contact Information.

Scroll down to leave a comment or question. (Click this post’s title first if you are viewing on the home page.)

All media © Copyright G Dan Mitchell and others as indicated. Any use requires advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.